Poker is a card game played with a small group of people around a table. The object is to win the pot, which is the sum total of all bets placed during a hand. The game is fast-paced and betting occurs continuously. Each player has a stack of chips which they can use to place bets. Players can choose to call, raise or fold. Those who have the best poker hand win the pot.

A standard pack of 52 cards is used (although some games have additional jokers). The cards are ranked (from high to low) Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2. A poker hand must contain five cards.

Once all players have raised their bets, the dealer deals three cards on the table which everyone can use, this is called the flop. Then another round of betting takes place and the highest hand wins the pot.

There are four types of poker players: the tourist, the amateur, the money hugger and the pro. The divide between break-even beginner players and big time winners is not as wide as some people think, however it requires a lot of work and dedication to learn the game.

In most forms of poker, the highest hand is a straight or flush. A flush consists of 5 cards in consecutive rank from the same suit. A full house is a pair of matching cards and a three of a kind is two matching cards of one rank and 2 matching cards of another rank.